what's up danger

Avantika · 05-12-2021, 12:22 PM

Avantika patrolled the borders alone, feeling listless. She was tired. She'd moved back to the castle after Ulric's leadership inheritance and Resin's death, but she was still a million miles away from normality. She didn't know if she would ever be normal again. She wanted something to do, but nothing satisfied her. Her spar with Rudy had helped, but it was finished. Her sleep schedule had drifted into chaos. Regularity had become irrelevant. Nothing else was normal; why should she be? It wasn't like she could sleep anyway. Not unless she was utterly exhausted to the point that she couldn't think. She knew that by now. She also knew that if she wasn't utterly exhausted, her thoughts would tornado ceaselessly around her head, whirling and crashing in helplessly repeating circles. What next? That was the general tune of them. And they didn't stop when she did somehow go unconscious, either, but chased her doggedly through her nightmares. She didn't fall asleep anymore. She worked herself into exhaustion comas, snatching precious moments of terror-plagued sleep in between the constant worrying that had come to rule every section of her conscious mind.

That was why she was out here patrolling instead of sleeping next to Kaata, even though she really should have been at this time of night. Life was moving on, and she wasn't ready for it. She was stalling. The future taunted her with its endless possibilities: some good, most bad. Resin would never get to see any of them. That was the worst part. Avantika hadn't precisely taken Resin for granted, but she'd always expected that she'd be there forever. Sure, she'd been older, but she'd been so full of life, so real. It was hard to imagine her not existing.

That was it, wasn't it? The concept of death baffled her. It was hard to think about. She knew what sleep was, of course, but that was just like a trial run of death, and the scary part of death was that it didn't end. You couldn't wake up from it. It was the end.

Her eyes mutated every looming shadow into a monster, making her thankful that she had worn her mask armor. But she almost didn't believe it when she did hear a growl. Her second emotion was, strangely, excitement. Everything felt so dull and foggy lately. This, whatever it was, was at the very least a break from the routine.

The creature's long white fangs almost seemed to glow in the dark. So did its eyes. A coldness settled on Avantika's face as she bared her teeth and snarled back, barely sure of what she was doing but getting into a fighting stance all the same.

A paw flashed out, and claws slashed across her chest, just below the gray hide armor that protected her throat. Not deep. She didn't think so, at least. She wasn't really in a thinking mood just now. All she was was hot breaths and a racing heart: passion and fear. Adrenaline and grief combined to become her sole driving force. Their fire consumed her so thoroughly that there was no room for anything more complicated. The wound that the cat had just inflicted on her hurt, but its pain only spurred her onward. She wasn't backing down.

She moved back a few small steps, slowly walking in a circle, trying to catch the beast off of its guard. She did that for a few long minutes, dodging the few attacks that came tentatively towards her. She had never seen a sabertooth tiger before and wasn't aware that this one was actually relatively small and young. But regardless, it seemed healthy and uninjured and was still large compared to a wolf, so it was still a significant threat. Avantika reminded herself to wait, like a snake. Patience didn't come easily to her right now, but she needed to persist in using it anyway. She would never beat the sabertooth tiger if she wasn't careful. Its claws were sharp. She had experienced that. The slash on her chest, which was dripping blood slowly but steadily onto the ground, reminded her at any moment that she might be liable to forget that crucial fact.

Eventually, after she-didn't-even-know-how-much time had passed, the cat didn't turn quite enough to keep up with her. Avantika took quick advantage of this opportunity. She had been waiting for it. She sprinted forward. Her jaws gripped one of the beast's forelegs, and she pulled hard, trying to get it off balance. Realizing quickly that that wasn't going to work, she ripped as much flesh off as she could and dashed back away.

The tiger snarled, although there was a hitch in it, and ran off, fast. Avantika blinked. She hadn't expected that to be so fast or easy. She caught herself and growled. She had won; what did it matter if it was easier than she had expected?

She felt hollow.

WC: 815

"Avantika to Kaata telepathy"
"Kaata to Avantika telepathy"
"speech"

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